What's the most underrated cartridge?

[Anonymous]

One that I feel gets underappreciated quite a bit is.270 Winchester. Although it's well regarded and reasonably well known, it's often pushed to the side or ignored entirely wheras 30-06, .308, 30-30(even though 30-30 is kind of shit), or even 300 Winchester Magnum is heavily favored. I'd take.270 Winchester over all of those cartridges every day of the week for a few reasons, the first one being the great reloading support that 270 has, the bullets are very inexpensive, very high quality, plentiful, and the cartridge is very capable and versatile. You can go light and super fast with 90gr, up to 150gr for deer or larger game and reloading 270 is a breeze. The cartridge is also well supported in plenty of different bolt actions and if you shop around, you can also find semi autos and even pump action rifles chambered in 270. The ammo is also quite a bit cheaper than any of those other cartridges I mentioned and the reloading components are also very cheap and easy to find. Yet still, people will often say that it's weak, but according to extensive research I've done, you can easily load it to be every bit as powerful as any 30-06 at any range, and the BC of 270 bullets is often very formidable, but yet still, 270 Winchester remains a level below those other cartridges in terms of popularity. I am hopeful that my spreading of it's merits and spotlight on it will show people that it's an outstanding cartridge that deserves if nothing else, a very hard look by anyone looking for a hunting rifle or long range tannerite blaster. What's a cartridge that you feel is underappreciated?

[blank_expression]

Good info! I am not as deep into ballistics as some re-loaders I know that are fanatics and can talk hours about it. I do shoot a 300 Win Mag when dropping something very large is required and I have one chance. I do have a 7mm Mauser that I believe is in the neighborhood to compare but I can’t make a comparison of the other cartridges directly as most of my other hardware is Class III stuff. If I compare the 7mm M 7x57 to the 300WM, it feels almost 1.5x about. So you made me curious:

Common average loads:

7mm Mauser 162 gr (10.5 g) RWS ID 2,625 ft/s (800.0 m/s) 2,480 ft⋅lbf (3,360 J)

.270 Winchester 140 gr (9 g) SP 2,916 ft/s (889 m/s) 2,644 ft⋅lbf (3,585 J)

300MW180 gr (11.7 g) BT 3,193 ft/s (973 m/s) 4,076 ft⋅lbf (5,526 J)

Energy wise, the 7mm M is close to the.270 W

[I-am-a-nobody]

I always thought the.284 was the most underrated. It has.270 ballistics in a shorter case, which means you can use a shorter action*. according to Wikipedia it is enjoying a resurgence. It's shoulder is less gradual. *Used in Winchester models 100 and 88.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.284_Winchester
Of today's common rounds, I think a 7mm-08 gives near 270 power, but the 270 can get a lot more if you hand load. If you don't hand load the 270 is a couple bucks cheaper for 20 rounds.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/Remington-reg-Express-Core-Lokt-Rifle-Ammunition/740954.uts?slotId=3

[AllieOops]

I heard the 30-30 is the best all around deer bullet because it doesn't destroy a bunch of meat as more powerful bullets do.

[Asker]

But it's still kind of shit because it drops so much due to the round construction of the bullets being required since it's a lever action, it's velocity is nothing to brag about, and it's expensive. Compare it to any of the other ones I mentioned, and they stomp all over the 30-30

[reptocarl2]

Actually she partially right. The 30-30 Win has taken more deer than any cartridge in history for a couple of reasons. It’s effective at the ranges the majority that deer are taken and the rifles that use it are small light and handy. If one lived in the eastern USA and only hunted white tale deer that would be the best overall choice. Ammo is dirt cheap and recoil is soft

[I-am-a-nobody]

@Rangers
I'm with you on this one. A 243 would be better. Much flatter trajectory. The 30-30 is traditional and it's been around over 100 years, thus the long term success. It was one of the first repeating rifles. Now, it's just an antique.

[reptocarl2]

@I-am-a-nobody it isn’t an antique. It still continues to take more deer than a 243 to this very day. It doesn’t need improved.

[AllieOops]

@I-am-a-nobody No it's not. Marlin and Henry still make 30-30 lever action rifles. They are great for packing on a horse instead of some bulky magnum rifle.

[Asker]

It's taken more deer because it's been around longer, that's it. I'll concede that yes, it doesn't tear up meat as much as other rounds, but I'm more concerned with getting a humane kill and the massive fluctuation with drop, huge discrepancy between downrange power and recoil, and high cost and low performance makes 30-30 show it's age quite a bit in my mind. If you like 30-30, I take no issue at all with that and it's up to you, but if people are going to go and tell me that 30-30 is better than 30-06, 270, .308, or.243 for deer, I feel the need to step in and start fact checking.

[reptocarl2]

The 30-30 kills them just as dead as any other. The fact is the vast majority of whitetail deer are taken at under 100 yards so why do you need anything else?

[reptocarl2]

The.270 win is highly regarded as one of N Americas premier big game cartridges of all time. It’s even proven itself on African plains game. Even with appropriate 130gr bullets it’s effective and humane on Elk. The two most underrated are the 25-06 Rem and the 7mm-08 Rem. The former with appropriate bullets will take Elk plus in the smaller bullets is spectacular for very long range varmints though it’s muzzle blast and powder amounts do make it less desirable than traditional varmint rounds. The 7mm-08 Rem is just as long range as the new 6.5mm Creedmore but has far more bullet weight and types. It will knock down the heaviest of silhouette targets and still take elk and moose. It has as good accuracy as the Creedmore but with more energy. The 7mm-08 Rem has virtually identical ballistics as the 30-06 spr. but is doing it with 145gr bullets, softer recoil and a short action. The 30-06 is doing it with 180gr bullets, much more recoil and a less accurate long action.

[American_Centurion]

FN 5.7×28mm fir home defense. My PS90 is my home defense weapon, 50 rounds in a small compact lightweight carbine with limited chance of over penetration if you have to put some thug down after he breaks into your home, especially with the BLM riots going on and criminal activity so high. I'm looking into replacing my glocks with the Ruger-57 or FN Five-seven which run this round.

[JackSmy]

I thought that the M1 Garand was originally designed to use.270 or 7mm rounds. I have a WWI 7mm Mauser rifle and have developed some custom 7mm loads for it.
I thought that the.30-06 was forced on John Garand, as the military had stockpiled MILLIONS of rounds and changing to the.270 or 7mm would cause them issues!
POLITICS!! I think that round would have been much better, assuming that the rifle was designed to shoot people, and not MOOSE!!

[Anonymous]

270 is a very good round. I aways wanted one, the selection of rifes with the 270 round is very limited. Winchester did make a model 70 bolt action chambered for it. I don't think the model 70 is still made. The Remington model 700 ADL I don't think was even chambered for it. Remington's similar round was a 280. Ruger may make a bolt action chambered for a 270. Here in SW FL where I live for deer hunting normally most hunters use nothing bigger than a 243 or 6mm. Many of the hunters use rounds like 222, 223 or 22-250 for deer hunting. I had a 250 Savage, 22-250 Remington and 218 Bee Marlin lever action for deer hunting. A friend of mine used a 22 Hornet for deer. I even used a 22 Magnum for deer. A 270 is a good round for the bigger deer and game out west. Another good round you never hear much about is a 264 Winchester magnum. 270 is also a Winchester round.

[RandallM]

Dude the 17hmr is a wonderful rimfire caliber, I can get an under one inch grouping at 100yards with a 2.6" drop at 150, and 0.1 inch high at 50, I bloody love it, small caliber or not

[najekim]

I used to shoot and reload.303 British and 6.5 Carcano. Both were very accurate when I found the right loads for them. Finally ended up with 1" to 1 1/2" groupings @ 100 yds for both using Accurate powders and home cast bullets.

[TadCurious]

What would be the largest game that the 270 would be appropriate for?

[I-am-a-nobody]

I'd say Grizzlies and Elk. It's small for moose, but I'm sure it would work.

[AllieOops]

@I-am-a-nobody I wouldn't want to rely on that small a caliber on a big grizzly. That might just piss them off and they could slice and dice you with those claws.

[reptocarl2]

@I-am-a-nobody not grizzlies

[AllieOops]

@reptocarl2 You said grizzlies and elk.

[I-am-a-nobody]

@AllieOops @reptocarl2
The 270 wouldn't be a first choice and if I were going after the largest grizzly ever, I'd rather have something bigger (338 Winchester), but I think a 270 could do the job 99% of the time.

[reptocarl2]

@AllieOops I never said grizzlies

[AllieOops]

@reptocarl2 Sorry, it was I-Am-a-nobody that said that.

[AllieOops]

@I-am-a-nobody I'd rather be on the safe side of a cartridge for a big grizzled one and a.270 would be like using a 5.56mm. It would just piss it off.

[reptocarl2]

@AllieOops the.270 is for all game except the great bears

[codyccc]

3 1/2 inch 10 gauge slug because sometimes you just need to drop a kodiak in kevlar

[KrakenAttackin]

How about the good ole' .44 magnum. Fired from a carbine it will kill almost anything at close range.

[SuccessfulHornDog]

Depends on the application